


the mother of invention

by kaberett



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, F/M, Gen, Gender Dysphoria, Menstruation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-14
Updated: 2011-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-27 07:47:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/293373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaberett/pseuds/kaberett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A proposed solution to another of life's great mysteries, namely, how one deals with menstruation when one spends one's life on a flying bison. And other stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the mother of invention

**Katara**  
"Now, Katara," says Gram-Gram, briskly, "it won't be long before you start your monthlies. The Moon pulls at the tides, and she pulls at us too, and the upshot is that – sooner or later – you'll begin bleeding. Usually I talk about mosses, but for you... well, when I was a girl we always envied the water-benders. I'll try to tell you what I remember of the technique."

Later, Katara finds she's spending most of her time half a mile up on the back of a bison. She often has cause to reflect gratefully on that conversation.

 **Mai**  
Mai grits her teeth and repeats the form past the burning ache in her belly. Her blade hits the target; she's baffled, briefly, by the simultaneous starburst spike of pain in her hip; and then she slips into a defensive stance, low to the ground, second nature. _Balance is imperative: in your steel and in your self_. Show no weakness. Show no fear. _Don't let anyone notice. Don't let Azula notice._ She wonders, dimly and darkly, whether this is what the fire-benders mean when they wax poetic on the physical warmth of perfect control. She rather suspects that it isn't.

 **Toph**  
"Katara," whispers Toph, in the depths of the night, when the boys – she can feel – are asleep. She waits. She listens. She sighs. She crooks her finger – just so – and: " _Katara_ ," she hisses, and this time she gets a reply. "I need to talk to you," she says. "About... _girl_ stuff," and just like that Katara's in full-blown bustling mothering mode, and for once Toph doesn't mind: the irritating mind-reading routine is surprisingly welcome when she doesn't know the words and she's scared because no-one ever told her this could happen.

 **Smellerbee**  
I know. I know it doesn't matter what other people think of me. Doesn't help much, though, does it, not right now - this ain't thoughts, it's facts - facts and betrayal. (we know all about _that_ ) My flippin body and I can't even stop it. I wouldn't mind it so much if I could choose, you know? Or even if I knew when it was going to happen. Think that's the thing I miss most about the hide-out, even. Well, that and – anyway. Wasn't always much to eat, wasn't great in the wet, but at least there wasn't _this_.

 **Suki**  
Three weeks after their home is finished, Suki hears a squawk and has a premonition, followed shortly by a Sokka sidling sheepishly in. "Don't tell me you've never seen used rags before," she says: "You _do_ have a sister." "In point of fact," he replies indignantly, "I haven't. I was scared! What if you were dying! – Promise me you'll tell me if you're dying." "... Sokka," she says, "Katara must have done _something_." "Whatever it was, it wasn't _that_ ," he says, and she's got a horrible feeling she can hear cogs whirring.

**Author's Note:**

> In my personal canon Mai has a chronic gynaecological condition, okay. (Oh, and OpenOffice thought this was 505 words long. It is five drabbles, honest!)


End file.
